[Politichicks] A controversial billboard depicting President Donald Trump as a Nazi was funded with taxpayer dollars and was commissioned by an "arts advocate" paid by a U.S. city to "diminish barriers," records obtained by Judicial Watch reveal. The massive billboard caused a ruckus when it was unveiled in downtown Phoenix, Arizona in mid-March because it features a menacing portrait of Trump surrounded by mushroom clouds--in the shape of laughing clowns--and swastikas modified as dollar signs. A pin of a Russian flag appears on the president’s lapel.The huge display towers over Grand Avenue and Taylor Street in downtown Phoenix and will remain there throughout Trump’s presidency, according to the local art gallery that claims to own it and conveniently omits that public money is involved. A multitude of local and national media outlets covered the controversy surrounding the artist that created it and the contentious image it portrays, but all have failed to uncover the important fact that taxpayer dollars are behind it. Instead, the media has reported that the Trump Nazi billboard was commissioned by the billboard owner, Beatrice Moore, a longtime patron of the arts on Grand Avenue. Moore’s deep ties to the city and the cash she receives for her various public art endeavors have remained secret. The news reports have also focused on the death threats that the artist, Karen Fiorito, has received. A local paper reported that the billboard went up during an annual art event and that the artist aimed to stir up a controversy.
Mainstream national media also failed to report the important fact that taxpayer dollars contributed to the offensive billboard. The Washington Post opted to serve as a mouthpiece for Fiorito’s anti-Trump tirade. In a piece published days after the billboard controversy hit the artist calls Trump supporters "scumbags" and says the country is on a "very dangerous path" toward "total annihilation." A California news outlet focused on Fiorito’s death threats and her interpretation of the art, which "represents global destruction, warfare and annihilation of the planet." The dollar swastikas represent "corporate power and greed and how our society has become all about money and corporatism," the artist says in the story.
...